KICK BOXING
Historical
Kickboxing is a very new sport compared to boxing. It appeared in the 1960s alongside in Japan and in the United States.
At that time, full contact competitions are organized between different styles of martial arts, and some fighters, frustrated by the regulations of their martial art in competition, favoring keys and speed (especially Point Fighting competitions, where fighters are stopped at every stroke counted), seeking a sport where they could no longer hold their strokes. Kickboxing was thus born as the merger of martial arts with boxing.
Kick Boxing today and with us
As for boxe anglaise, kickboxing is not a violent sport but a sport where you learn self-control and body movements in a game with an opponent in the values of respect and mutual trust.
Surprisingly, kickboxing attracts a large female audience, although the presence male is still the majority.
The technical aspect
Kickboxing shows the basics of boxing and adds kicks. Given the longer-range kicks, the way to move and keep the distance is not the same.
The variety of additional strokes is very interesting: there are circular kicks, front kicks, back kicks, jumped kicks, etc. as welle as sweeps.
The Back First is prohibited in competitions in France but can be learned in training, and knee strikes added to kickboxing form another discipline called K1 Rules.
Competition
As in boxing, kickboxing provides a form of competition where it is not allowed to insist on strokes, for young competitors especially: light contact. It is possible to make full contact fighting only from the age of 18 (Junior category), unlike boxing where you can fight in full contact from 14 years old (cadet category, "boxe amateur").
As far as federation level is concerned, Kickboxing is more recent and much less strong than for boxing, but things are improving gradually. Currently and recently kickboxing gathered with other fists and feet fighting sports (muay thai, k1 rules, chauss'fight, pancrace, wrestling, boji boxing) in the FFSCDA (Férération français de Sports de Contact et Disciplines associées).